Yep, it's a popularity contest. Those would all be A titles.

They are also class A titles, but they are much higher production than the first 4 that you mentioned:
TAF: 20K produced
TZ: 15K
IJ: 12K

vs.

MM: 4K
AFM: 3K
CC: 900

If there were only 900 TAF, it would likely be a $20K title or more. It's all about supply and demand!

exactly

Here's some reading material for you. all i did was search "a list".

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/a-list-pins

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/a-list-pins-1

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/a-list-games

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/a-list-pin-turds

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/is-whitewater-now-an-a-list-pin

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-a-list-sorted-by-decade

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/in-your-own-words-what-is-an-a-list-pin

Short version, there is no official list or no industry standard.

I don't think price makes an A-lister. I think gameplay and overall likability is what makes an A-lister.

A game that cost $10000 or more but is super shallow is not an A-lister in my book.

Whatever games you like most, there's your a-list.

The high priced "A-Listers" are generally WPC'95 games. They have 3 things in common:

-Excellent sound quality (and great music & voices)
-Excellent toys & features
-Low production numbers

High demand, finite supply. Doesn't mean they're "better" or "more fun" than other games...they're just good and harder to come by.

Im not so sure about the Low production numbers being a factor on A-listers.

look at the numbers again, the top ten games on www.ipdb.org are some of the top selling games of all time.

Stop caring about what is and isn't "A list" - it just spreads the cancer.

I agree that price isn't quite right for determining the A-list. I think the market cap concept (price of avg game x # of machines in existence) is probably a better measure (Hence TAF >> CC)

But I would say the top 10 of the pinside top 100 is probably the best A-list. The only people who rate the games are hardcore pinball players/experts and it's the best voting machine that we have.

Maybe A-list should be the top 25, since Mr. Pinball's 2013 guide has 2536 pins listed, and the top 1% is a reasonable sized A-list.

Sure - I guess I was just referring to the ones that are approaching 10k+ in pricing. Those are all WPC'95 titles...and BBB lol

My Seawitch is an A-lister title. Love love love this machine.

I play what I like. I find labelling a pin an A title is just following the hoards. You can use it as a reference, but really - just define your own A list and run with it.

Top 10 lists and selling prices (or A listers if you will) are good indicators of a game's demand but this is based on overall popularity and not necessarily what YOU will like. However, most folks prefer Twilight Zone to Party Zone, Monster Bash to NBA Fastbreak, Cirqus Voltaire to Popeye, Attack From Mars to Demolition Man, and Medieval Madness to Johnny Mnemonic so there is some degree of reasonableness to it all. This doesn't necessarily mean you will prefer A titles to other, less-in-demand games.

Yeah you make your own A list